WEBVTT - How Do Capybaras Work?

0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:04.320
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,

0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:09.879
<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Boga Bam here. For some reason,

0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:13.760
<v Speaker 1>not everybody loves rodents, but maybe because a few species

0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.640
<v Speaker 1>are pretty persistent in their efforts to share our homes

0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:20.000
<v Speaker 1>with us, and rats have long been credited with spreading

0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:23.040
<v Speaker 1>the bubonic plague, which killed millions of people in medieval

0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:25.840
<v Speaker 1>Europe and Asia, though technically it was the fleas that

0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:30.400
<v Speaker 1>rats and other small animals helped spread. But the taxonomic

0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:35.000
<v Speaker 1>order Rodentia is vast. A whopping of all mammal species

0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.280
<v Speaker 1>are rodents, which means the Norway rats you glimpse in

0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:40.880
<v Speaker 1>the shadows of the subway tunnel and the house mice

0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:44.440
<v Speaker 1>setting up a nursery in your attic are yes, both rodents,

0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:49.080
<v Speaker 1>but so are beavers, guinea pigs, porcupines, and chipmunks. There's

0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:52.159
<v Speaker 1>a lot to love there, but maybe none so charismatic

0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:56.920
<v Speaker 1>as the world's largest rodent, the capybara. Charisma is of

0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:01.280
<v Speaker 1>course very subjective and picture this though giant pig like

0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.080
<v Speaker 1>semi aquatic rodent about the size of a large dog,

0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.479
<v Speaker 1>whose eyes, ears, and nostrils sit basically at the top

0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:11.000
<v Speaker 1>of its head. They also have these weird, tiny webbed

0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:14.480
<v Speaker 1>feet that look kind of like hoofs. They're vegetarian and

0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:16.840
<v Speaker 1>eat between six and eight pounds of grass each day.

0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:18.680
<v Speaker 1>That's about two and a half to three and a

0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.320
<v Speaker 1>half kilos, and that's in addition to eating their first

0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.759
<v Speaker 1>poop of the morning. That poop contains lots of protein

0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:28.120
<v Speaker 1>from the microbes that have been feasting on the contents

0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.720
<v Speaker 1>of their intestines all night. Eating it allows them to

0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:32.880
<v Speaker 1>get nutrients out of the food that their system didn't

0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:37.160
<v Speaker 1>absorb the day before. Capabaras are native to Central and

0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:41.039
<v Speaker 1>South America, where they're doing extremely well. The International Union

0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.440
<v Speaker 1>for Conservation of Nature considers them a species of Least Concern,

0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:47.600
<v Speaker 1>even though they serve as a prey item for everything

0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:51.720
<v Speaker 1>from anticonda's to jaguars. And Capabaras need to stick pretty

0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:55.240
<v Speaker 1>close to the water wetland estuary river and not only

0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:57.480
<v Speaker 1>because they need to keep their skin moist, but also

0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.960
<v Speaker 1>because they require access to the grasses the grow near waterways.

0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.480
<v Speaker 1>About eight percent of their diet comes from five different

0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:09.560
<v Speaker 1>grass species. Another thing Capebara's need is each other. For

0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:11.720
<v Speaker 1>the article that this episode is based on, the team

0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.000
<v Speaker 1>at house Stuff Works spoke with Elizabeth Congdon, a capabara

0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.040
<v Speaker 1>researcher and professor in the Department of Natural Sciences at

0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:22.440
<v Speaker 1>Bethune Cookman University. She said capabaras are among the most

0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:25.880
<v Speaker 1>social of rodent species. Groups consist of a dominant male

0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:28.720
<v Speaker 1>and several subordinate females that tend to be related to

0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.680
<v Speaker 1>one another and their offspring. Females cooperate with one another

0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.600
<v Speaker 1>to the point of nursing another's infants and collectively defending

0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:39.280
<v Speaker 1>the young of the group against predators and potentially infanticidal males.

0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.959
<v Speaker 1>I've personally seen an adult female back down a large

0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:48.079
<v Speaker 1>spectacled cayman that was approaching her newborn. Groups of capabarras

0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:50.400
<v Speaker 1>can range from around ten two up to a hundred

0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.040
<v Speaker 1>during the dry season, and for the most part, their

0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:56.360
<v Speaker 1>daily activity involves a whole lot of chilling. Some have

0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.960
<v Speaker 1>called capabara's nature's ottomans because all sorts of animals seem

0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:04.480
<v Speaker 1>to enjoy sitting on a capybara's broad back. Monkeys, birds, cats,

0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:08.720
<v Speaker 1>other capybaras, you name it. Female capabarras like to play

0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.200
<v Speaker 1>with their young, teaching their daughters to be allies to

0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:15.000
<v Speaker 1>one another and sons to be competitive but since capybaras

0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:17.799
<v Speaker 1>have so many predators, and since a single male works

0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:20.360
<v Speaker 1>hard to keep as many females to himself as possible,

0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:25.119
<v Speaker 1>males are constantly on the lookout for funny business. Kongden said,

0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:29.040
<v Speaker 1>the male will aggressively defend his rank. These interactions between

0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.680
<v Speaker 1>males don't always reach the level of a full fight,

0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:35.120
<v Speaker 1>because grunting and chasing will usually do the trick. Females

0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:37.480
<v Speaker 1>not only stay in the group, but also help defend

0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:41.640
<v Speaker 1>territory against outsiders and predators by alarm calling when citing one.

0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:46.080
<v Speaker 1>And While it's true the capybaras are charming and some

0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.080
<v Speaker 1>people have begun keeping them as pets, which is legal

0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:52.000
<v Speaker 1>in some U S States like Texas and Pennsylvania, although

0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:54.160
<v Speaker 1>in most places you need to get a special license.

0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:57.880
<v Speaker 1>Keeping a capybara in your home isn't for everyone, or

0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:01.080
<v Speaker 1>even the vast majority of US. Papa bara's require a

0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.920
<v Speaker 1>lot of water space and friends. A solitary or even

0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:09.040
<v Speaker 1>pair of capa baras would probably be very unhappy. In Florida,

0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.600
<v Speaker 1>several have escaped, probably from a wildlife research facility, and

0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:15.640
<v Speaker 1>are hanging out in North Florida, possibly snuggling each other

0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:18.479
<v Speaker 1>with birds, sitting on their backs. It remains to be

0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:22.040
<v Speaker 1>seen whether Cape Barras will become Florida's next invasive speciets.

0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:29.920
<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is based on the article the charismatic Cape

0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:32.440
<v Speaker 1>Barra is Chiller than Your Dog on how stuff works

0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.800
<v Speaker 1>dot com, written by Jesslyn Shields. Brain Stuff is production

0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:37.960
<v Speaker 1>of by Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuff Works

0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.800
<v Speaker 1>and is produced by Tyler clang Or More podcasts from

0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.560
<v Speaker 1>my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:45.440
<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows